Surveying an environment typically requires a team of surveyors. For instance, to determine an angle and/or distance from a first location to a second location, a person stands a transit located on a tripod at the first location, and another person stands at the second location with a measuring rod. The person at the transit looks through the telescope of the transit to locate the measuring rod. The horizontal/vertical angles of transit with respect to the rod at the second location facilitates in the surveying of the environment.
A total station may be used to simplify the surveying of an environment. However, a typical total station often requires manual intervention to properly place the total station on a tripod and also provide user input to control the operation of the total station.